Surf's Up
Platform: Atari 2600
Region: Prototype (USA)
Media: Cartridge
Controller: Joystick
Gametype: Prototype
Release Year: 1983
Developer: Amiga
Publisher: Unreleased
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Surf's Up was the third and last game to make use of Amiga's JoyBoard controller.  The JoyBoard was a quirky device that you would stand on and lean in the direction you wanted your character to move.  An interesting concept, but it didn't work overly well and only one officially released game (Mogul Maniac) made use of it.  While Amiga's second game Off Your Rocker was sold in limited quantities through Happy Valley Video, Surf's Up was never sold in stores.

In case you haven't guessed, Surf's Up is a surfing game which attempts to use the JoyBoard to mimic a surfboard.  While this may not sound like the easiest thing to simulate on the 2600, Surf's Up does a fairly decent job at it.  There are three different beaches (levels) to choose from: Santa Cruz, Malibu, and Waimea.  Santa Cruz is the easiest, while Waimea is the hardest. 

You control a little yellow surfboard which you can move about the screen in an attempt to "ride the wave".  There are a pair of red lines that represent 'the wave' (so to speak).  While the top line is stationary, the bottom line moves up and down (simulating the movement of the wave).  You can score points by moving towards the top red line when both of them are are touching each other, but if you stay there for too long you'll wipe out so be careful. 

If you have the difficulty switch in the A position you will notice little sea critters moving across the screen.  These creatures will attack you and knock you off your board if you're not careful (Whoa dude!  For real?), so you will need to move your board around the screen to avoid them.  This variation makes the game a heckuva lot more fun, so it is recommended that you play with the game in the A position all the time.  

While the gameplay may be only so-so, the graphics in Surf's Up are very well done.  The title screen shows a little man (who looks like a stick figure) on a surfboard in a rather well drawn ocean scene.  The next screen shows a first person view of the ocean from your surfboard as you pick which level you want to start on.  The main game screen shows your little yellow surfboard on a moving blue ocean with some palm trees, houses, and a mountain (a volcano?) in the background.  The rhythmic roll of the ocean has been nicely implemented with moving blue lines which give you a calm, relaxed feeling. 

All in all Surf's Up isn't really a bad game I suppose, plus it is the only surfing game for the 2600 in the US (unless you count the surfing sequence in California Games).  Using an actual JoyBoard instead of an emulator will enhance the gameplay slightly, but not enough to make me want to play it for more than a few minutes (which is a good thing since the game ends automatically after 2 and a half minutes).  In all fairness to Amiga, they may have still been tweaking the gameplay since this is a prototype.  However I don't see what more could be done to make this game interesting since what you can do is limited by the JoyBoard itself (no wild tricks or dangerous jumps would be possible).  Nice try Amiga. An A for effort, but a C for execution.

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/surfsup/surfsup.htm
